Occult Rituals

It’s a common belief that only those initiated in the rites and practices of arcane, divine, or psychic magic can cast spells, but this is not strictly true. Hidden within dusty libraries and amid the ramblings of lunatics lie the mysteries of another form of spellcasting—occult ritual magic. These spells are rare, coveted by both those eager to gain their power and those wishing to hide their existence. Most traditional spellcasters consider these rituals dangerous and uncontrollable, something to be avoided or used as a last resort. They fear the power these ceremonies grant to the uninitiated, as the rituals allow those with only a glimmering of understanding the ability to interact with the underlying fabric of magic.

While anyone can attempt to cast occult rituals, the process is fraught with peril. The strange and intricate incantations are often challenging to perform with precision, and failure can weaken the casters or even unleash horrors upon the world. Even when successfully performed, each occult ritual has a price—a backlash that affects at least the caster leading the ritual, and often those assisting in its performance.Click here for the full rules on Occult Rituals.

Effect

By repairing damaged magical runes and realigning the energies based on the gate’s planetary position, the caster reactivates a dormant aiudara. A reactivated gate automatically reconnects with its linked twin, acting as a two-way gate (as per the spell) between the locations. The caster knows the gate’s password—which might be anything from an Elven phrase to a song’s refrain to a spell—from the research required to learn this ritual. All other creatures who use this gate must also know the password to access the gate’s magic after it has been reactivated.

Aiudara

Created using ancient elven knowledge, the aiudara network is a system of gates placed throughout the solar system. Also known as “elf gates”—a term elves consider vulgar—these portals come in two distinct models: linked gates and hubs. Linked gateways connect two aiudara together, while hubs allow a single location access to multiple sites.

The art of crafting new aiudara remains lost to Golarion’s elves, but occult rituals for activating most existing linked gates persist. Rules for this ritual are presented below. Rules also exist for activating hub gates, although these aiudara are rare. The ritual for reconnecting a hub gate to all its affiliated gates is modified from the ritual below as follows: Level 7; Casting Time 70 minutes; Components add F (a rare gem worth at least 5,000 gp); Skill Checks add 1 Knowledge (history) success; Failure same effect, except the hostile creature comes from the summon monster VII list (and potential additional creatures come from the 6th-level list or lower-level lists).

Known rituals to activate aiudara can be found within the libraries of Kyonin and the Mordant Spire, while the writings of the Ekujae and Snowcaster elves detail similar procedures for maintaining gateways in their respective territories.